Supreme Court to Centre: Make model for girls’ toilets in proportion to their number

Quite disappointing

Supreme Court to Centre: Make model for girls’ toilets in proportion to their number

The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to set down a “national model for the ratio of the number of girls’ toilets per female student population across government-aided and residential schools in the country” before it finalises the draft National Menstrual Hygiene Policy, 2023.

A three-judge bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud also asked the government to bring about uniformity in terms of the modalities to be followed for the distribution of sanitary napkins.

The bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra, also asked the Centre to consider the practices followed in different States in order to arrive at the optimum policy which ensures that an adequate supply of sanitary napkins is made available to female students in schools in the requisite age group and that the modalities for distribution are facilitative in all respects.

The directions came on a PIL filed through Advocate Varun Thakur seeking direction to the Centre, states & Union Territories to ensure provision of free sanitary pads to every female student in classes 6 to 12, separate toilets for females in all government-aided and residential schools and to undertake awareness programmes on maintenance of toilets and spread of awareness.

Senior Advocate Vibha Datta Makhija, who appeared for petitioner Jaya Thakur, pointed out that adolescent females between the ages 11 to 18 coming from poor families face a lot of difficulties due to the lack of these facilities and eventually leads to their dropping out of school.

On April 10, the court had asked the Centre to engage with all state governments and Union Territories to ensure that a uniform national policy is formulated with sufficient leeway for the States and UTs to make adjustments based on the prevailing conditions in their territories.

It also asked all states and UTs to submit their menstrual hygiene management strategies being executed either with help of funds by Central government or through their funds to mission steering group of National Health Mission.

The court said the mission steering group shall reevaluate national guidelines based on experiential learning of previous decade or so and nominate secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as the nodal officer to facilitate coordination with all other ministries of the Union and state governments and Uts.

On November 6, the Centre told court that a draft policy was formulated for distribution of sanitary napkins to female students in schools across the country.

Express News Service – 2023-11-16 02:11

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